This is the most interesting Avalanche story I've seen this year where the people actually all survived it. I have my own story of being in an avalanche too in the 1980s. I was alone and survived it on mt. Shasta luckily too.
My story is that I was skiing on Mt. Shasta around 9000 to 10,000 feet alone. I was in my 30s then and it was about this time of year too, where it was warm enough to ski with my shirt off so I was doing that. Then all of a sudden an acre of snow started moving with me in the middle of it.
I didn't think I would survive this but I was young and strong enough to go into overdrive trying to stay on top of the acre of snow moving towards the tree line below. The front part of the acre of snow hit the trees really hard and at first I thought I might be thrown into the side of a tree and killed but luckily that didn't happen and when the front part of the avalanche hit the trees it slowed it down (the mass of snow moving). It didn't knock any trees down the trees slowed the front end of the avalanche down. And when it finally stopped moving down Mt. Shasta I had moved with the avalanche at least 2000 to 3000 feet sideways and down from where I had been skiing. I went into overdrive trying to stay on top of the snow with my cross country skis. I succeeded enough not to die that day and was almost up to my neck in snow with my shirt off so it was cold. But, I could dig my way out of there and ski away from the loose snow okay. The snow was still 10 to 20 feet deep where I was but if you are wearing skis in most conditions you can stay on top of the snow when it is not moving in an avalanche so I was really grateful to be alive and decided that day not to ski alone above Tree line in the Spring any more which is a rule I have followed ever since that experience.
In life you either learn from your experiences you survive or else you aren't alive very long.
begin quote from:
Snowboarders Rescue Man Buried Alive In Sierra Avalanche ...
WATCH: Dramatic video of snow rescue following avalanche ...
Buried alive: Video shows man's rescue after avalanche
Dramatic video taken by a snowboarder shows the aftermath of an avalanche in Northern California, with people furiously digging out a man buried alive under snow.
One of the videos, released to The Associated Press on Monday, begins with a woman lying on the encased man, Evan Huck. She carefully clears snow from his face as others work to free his body using their hands and shovels.
"Just keep digging around him," someone says. "He's breathing."
Another man says: "Whoever spotted that snowboard sticking out, good job."
Heather Turning, a Roseville, California resident, who was snowboarding at Squaw Valley Ski Resort when the avalanche hit on Friday, helped dig Huck out and said that the whole time he kept asking if his wife was OK.
As she helped Huck, Turning's boyfriend, Michael Parker, shot video of the rescue effort. In a second video Parker released to The Associated Press, Huck's wife can be heard pleading, "Please, please, please," praying for her husband to live.
Parker said when he first saw Huck trapped in the snow he thought the worst.
"His lips were blue," Parker said. "For a second I thought, 'Oh gosh, I think he's gone, but as soon as I got closer I was like, 'No, he's good, he's good."
Huck's wife, Kahlynn Huck, had been buried nearly up to her neck but was able to eventually free herself while the others helped her husband.
Kahlynn Huck said in an Instagram post that she and her husband had been snowboarding when the avalanche "slammed into our backs and tossed us down mountain."
"It was six minutes until Evan was uncovered and he had passed out from lack of oxygen shortly after burial," she wrote. "He came to on his own again once the rescuer was touching his cheeks."
Kahlynn Huck credited the ski resort's rescuers and all the regular skiers and snowboarders like Turning who helped her husband.
"You are heroes and we're eternally grateful," she said.
Parker said the videos he shot showed the best of humanity and that he's grateful everyone is OK, especially after witnessing the avalanche.
"I saw it coming," Parker said. "It's everything you ever imagined — every movie and Discovery Channel show. You couldn't think or hear, you just hold on for dear life."
He added: "We were literally one foot away from getting swept away."
Although five people were buried by the avalanche, everyone survived and only one person had serious injuries.
Another avalanche hit Saturday at Mammoth Mountain Ski Area, about 170 miles southeast of Squaw Valley, partially burying three people. There were no injuries.
Heavy storms in recent days have dumped more than 6 feet of snow in some of California's higher elevations.
No comments:
Post a Comment